First-Year Student Testimonials

(Megan Fulsom continued)

"The First-Year Seminar is important to participate in because it helps make the transition from high school to college easier. Coming to a school with a group of 12-14 people in your same position makes it a lot easier. Plus the Alphas are there as people who have recently had to deal with everything you are getting ready to — from how to pick out classes to which clubs to join. They make this experience easier and the transition fun, plus then you have upperclassmen friends. The professors are there to help you at all times and really take time to listen to you and try to understand where you are coming from. This atmosphere introduces students to the academic side of Catawba, and shows them how important community is in Catawba's perspective.

Through my readings of the Catawba handbook and through the experiences of others in my class, I got exposed to several different things that Catawba had to offer. Also through certain projects which required participation in extra-curricular activities, I got exposed to activities that I would normally not have attended, but which were actually really interesting.

The seminar provided me with a group of people I knew when classes began. There were several of us who would study and write papers together for Rhetoric and Comp and then for other classes, we also would study together. This helped us open up to each other in class discussion because after orientation we felt as if we had known each other for a long amount of time."